Non-Silicon semiconductor wafers, e.g. made of silicon carbide (SiC), gallium arsenide (GaAs), gallium nitride (GaN) are not yet manufactured in sizes such as those currently used in production lines for processing silicon wafers.
As an example, for SiC the currently common size is 100 mm, whereas 150 mm wafers are becoming available. In the silicon manufacturing, sizes of 200 mm and 300 mm are common. Because of the technically much more difficult crystal growing, it is not expected that the wafer sizes of non-silicon semiconductors will obtain the sizes of silicon. In addition, SiC is very expensive compared to silicon (Si) wafers.
Since non-silicon and silicon wafers are not produced in the same size and not processed in the same production lines, they are either processed in separate production lines or costly adjustments to the manufacturing facilities have to be made. Both involve high costs.